History

With One Voice, London 2012

With One Voice began as a showcase event curated by Streetwise Opera at the 2012 Cultural Olympiad in London. For the first time in Olympic history it gave a platform for homeless people – celebrating the artistic achievements of 300 performers who had experienced homelessness.

With One Voice, Brazil 2013-16

Following London 2012, Streetwise was asked by British Council Brazil and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation UK Branch to research the feasibility and need for an arts and homelessness project at Rio 2016.

We conducted a feasibility study (available to download below) with People’s Palace Projects in consultation with homeless people, NGOs and City officials in Brazil. The study showed a desire to build the capacity of the arts and homelessness sector through exchanges of ideas between the sector in Brazil and the rest of the world.

We focused the work around three exchanges, one in the UK and two in Brazil between practitioners, artists, homeless workers, policy makers and people who have experienced homelessness. All three exchanges were co-curated and produced with our partner People's Palace Projects.

The final exchange in July 2016 was part of the Rio 2016 Cultural Olympiad, where an international delegation from six countries travelled to Rio for the culmination of the project. See 'exchanges' for more info.

With One Voice Movement, 2016 onwards

The With One Voice projects in London and Brazil have seen some striking impacts, particularly through bringing the international arts and homelessness community together in face-to-face exchanges. These have included artistic impacts such as the growth of choirs of homeless people in Rio from one to 11; the implementation of projects in different countries such as the Café Art calendar in Sao Paulo – and policy impacts such as the inspiration of Brazil’s Homeless People’s Movement taking shape through Manchester’s Homelessness Charter.

Following further consultation with the sector (see below), we have now launched this movement which will create more exchanges in arts and homelessness globally including future Olympic cities and other resources to help the sector grow and strengthen.